Formula Hedgehog
by I'maChair5050
Summary: Bored with his time in rallying, former World Champion Shadow the Hedgehog is tempted back into grand prix racing for the 2012 season. However, sparks will fly amongst teams and drivers alike as the sport enters a season of uncertainty, controversy and surprises. Just who will win? Rated T for language. OC's belong to me. All other characters belong to Sega.
1. The Pre-Season Build up

**Chapter 1: The Pre-Season Build up**

Shadow the Hedgehog had usually had a very quiet winter period. This meant that he often had the chance to put his feet up, get some rest and prepare for another tough season of racing when the time came round.

This winter, however, was different. Only a couple of weeks ago, just hours after the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the "Icehog" had announced his return to Formula One with the Lotus Team.

Shadow had first arrived on the scene many years ago with only a few races in single seaters under his belt. That being said, this didn't stop him from impressing the F1 fraternity with his lightning fast driving skill. After a few more seasons struggling with the McLaren Team, he'd made the switch to Ferrari and promptly won the World Championship by one point from his nearest rival: The young upstart, Sonic the Hedgehog. After two more years at Ferrari, he decided to call it a day, opting to switch to the World Rally Championship. His time there proved to be mixed at best, with Shadow only managing to gain one stage win.

Rumours of his return had started to surface around the time of the Singapore Grand Prix. It was originally thought that he would join the ailing Williams team, who hadn't won a race for years. Whilst Shadow had indeed been tempted to sign with Williams, he opted to sign with the much more competitive Lotus Team.

Not too long after the announcement was made, he'd given an interview with a popular magazine about his comeback.

* * *

_Flashback_

**Why coming back to Formula 1?**

"Coming back to Formula one, I think the main reason was that I never really lost the passion for racing in it. Although there are other things aside from it, when I did some NASCAR races in the States, I started to miss the whole racing against other drivers thing because you race against the clock in rallying. Then, I got a call from certain people within Formula One and I was able to have a nice conversation with Lotus Renault and ended up making a deal with them".

**Why did you choose Lotus Renault GP?**

"Really, there were two options. It was either this team or Williams. But everything seemed to work out better with this team, so that's really the reason".

**Have you been following the team this year?**

"Well, last year, I didn't follow it much at all. This year, however, I've followed it a bit more. I did see the last 20 laps of the last race because I knew the decision with the deal had to happen, but I've not really been following any specific team".

**Do you think Formula One is very different from the last time you were there? Do you think you are going to have a lot of work to catch up?**

"For comparing to my last season and now coming into the next season, the biggest difference would be the tyres, probably. The cars...I don't think they're that different. DRS...It's a new thing, but it's basically similar to the one button thing we had with the front wing, so not much different. But aside from that, I've already begun training hard, as the neck is the hardest thing to train for racing. However, I don't think I'll have much trouble re-adapting, as I've been there for many years, so it'll be interesting to go back".

* * *

One key personality trait the hedgehog carried, asides from his driving ability, was his antics on and off the track. In interviews, he often said what he wanted to say, not what the sponsors wanted him to say. This had often led to some unbelievable funny moments. One of the most famous moments begin at Shadow's last race with McLaren. When Flint Bradenburg, the legendary seven-times world champion, received a lifetime achievement award, Shadow was nowhere to be seen. When asked where he was, Shadow had simply replied (on national television) "I was having a shit".

Shadow knew he was in for a tough time. Firstly, he would have to re-adapt himself to driving in a grand prix again. Then, once he'd done that, he would have to be able to hold off his rivals. Silver had come off the back of winning his second world championship with the Red Bull team and were hoping to be able to do it again for the next season. What's more, whilst Silver's teammate, Nack, wasn't as good a driving talent, he was still pretty good.

He would also be up against his old rival Sonic and his teammate Manic at McLaren. His replacement at Ferrari, Elias, would also be looking dangerous, as would his old teammate, Monkey Khan. Flint Bradenburg also needed to have an eye kept on him in his third comeback season. Despite mixed results, he was still something to be feared. Just like his teammate, the two tailed fox Miles "Tails" Prower.

He would also have to be able to hold off any other drivers who came his way. Over the course of the last season, rules had been implemented to make the following season more competive.

In the end, Shadow decided just to go with whatever came his way.

* * *

As the drivers and teams began to arrive at the Jerez circuit for the first round of Pre-Season tests, there was a sense of excitement in the air, as there was no idea as to how competitive things would be. The new rules would've almost certainly allowed the other teams to catch up with the Red Bulls, so it was just a case of seeing who seemed hot at the end of the tests.

Between his return announcement and the first test, the Lotus Team had finally announced a new teammate for Shadow: The reigning GP2 champion Antoine D'Coolette. The French driver had first driven for the team a few years back, when Shadow was in his last season with Ferrari. However, whilst his teammate at the time, Elias, managed to do a good job with an uncompetitive car, Antoine was notable less successful. One infamous moment for him that year was causing a four car pile-up at Spa. However, now he'd come back as a much more matured racer and was hoping to show that he could still cut it at the pinnacle of the sport.

One other thing to note was that the Mercedes and HRT teams hadn't taken their challengers for this season with them. Mercedes were still busy developing the car, whilst HRT were still trying to make it pass the crash tests. However, they'd still brought their previous challengers with them, allowing Flint, Tails, Power De La Rocket and Nathan Carasmashin could still gather telemetry for their respective teams. The only absent drivers were Storm and Jet. In fact, the entire Marussia Team was absent, as they were solely focusing on making their car eligible to race for the season.

_Day 1_

On the morning of the first day of testing, Shadow was scheduled to test for the day. Once he'd grabbed a bite to eat, he pulled on his overalls, put on his balaclava and his helmet, fastened his HANS Device and went down to his part of the garage, where he clambered into his car, placed the steering wheel in and fastened his harness.

"Okay Shadow, you know the drill. Just go out there, thrash the car around and gather data for us" His race engineer told him over the radio.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's do this".

"Start her up, car to track!"

With that, the car roared into life.

Once the mechanics had lowered the jacks, Shadow left the box and rolled down the pitlane before exiting the end and blasting off around the circuit.

As Shadow began to readjust himself with a car like this, he actually began to feel at home in the cockpit. He felt like he was back where he truly belonged.

That was before Shadow began to really get a feel of what the car felt like. As the testing session wore on, he began to get that true feeling. To him, it felt poised, it felt precise, it felt balanced. It felt fantastic.

Knuckles was feeling exactly the same behind the wheel of the Williams. Last season, the team had had a terrible time, garnishing just five points with a heavily uncompetitive car. This time, the car felt must more controllable. It was able to go smoothly into a corner and go smoothly out of it. It finally felt like the team was returning to form.

Then there was Mighty at the wheel of the Force India. Whilst last year's car was pretty good, it was no front runner. This time, it felt like it could be the car to finally propel the team up to the level of McLaren and the others.

The same, however, could not be said for Khan and Nack at the wheel of their respective Ferrari and Red Bull. With the Ferrari, there was a distinct lack of grip with it. To him, it felt like walking on a tightrope. As for the Red Bull, there was a severe lack of downforce.

As the day wore on, the cars continued blasting round the track, gathering telemetry and data whilst checking the reliability of the cars.

Eventually, once the session was over, all the cars returned to their respective pit boxes.

"Okay, so how was that, Shadow?" Asked his race engineer.

"Yeah. Feels pretty good" He replied. "No major issues I can feel".

Further down the pitlane, Espio was finishing his test run of the Sauber.

"The car feels fine" He told his mechanic. "Ne major problems as of now. Also, the new tyres feel very good to drive with. I get the impression they'll help us out".

At the end of the day, the unofficial lap times looked like this:

_1. Shadow, Lotus, 1:19.670, 73 Laps  
2. Mighty, Force India, 1:19.772, 101 Laps  
3. Tails, Mercedes*, 1:20.219, 56 Laps  
__4. Nack, Red Bull, 1:20.496, 53 Laps  
__5. Geoffrey, Toro Rosso, 1:20.694, 57 Laps  
__6. Flint, Mercedes*, 1:20.794, 41 Laps  
7. Espio, Sauber, 1:21.353, 106 Laps  
8. Manic, McLaren, 1:21.530, 60 Laps  
9. Khan, Ferrari, 1:22.815, 69 Laps  
10. Bark, Caterham, 1:23.178, 28 laps  
__11. Knuckles, Williams, 1:23.371, 25 Laps  
12. Power, HRT*, 1:23.676, 44 Laps  
__*2011 Car_

_Day 2_

The day began almost exactly the same for most of the other drivers. In fact, the other changes were Sauber giving Ray a chance to drive the car and Force India letting their development driver, the young Juice Blackout, get some mileage under his belt.

With these things in mind, the drivers suited up, got out on track, tested their cars some more and came back in at the end of the day and told their engineers about the cars, mostly happy to report that there weren't may problems to report.

As Juice jumped out of his car, a massive grin was on his face.

"My god! This car feels so good!" He happily told the engineers.

On the unofficial Times sheet, there was a small surprise for the drivers:

_1. Flint, Mercedes*, 1:18.561, 132 Laps_  
_2. Nack, Red Bull, 1:19.184, 97 Laps_  
_3. Geoffrey, Toro Rosso, 1:19.587, 100 Laps_  
_4. Juice, Force India, 1:20.221, 46 Laps_  
_5. Shadow, Lotus, 1:20.239, 117 Laps_  
_6. Mighty, Force India, 1:20.272, 69 Laps_  
_7. Khan, Ferrari, 1:20.454, 95 Laps_  
_8. Manic, McLaren, 1:20.688, 85 Laps_  
_9. Ray, Sauber, 1:20.711, 106 Laps_  
_10. Knuckles, Williams, 1:21.197, 97 Laps_  
_11. Bark, Caterham, 1:21.518, 139 Laps_  
_12. Power, HRT*, 1:22.128, 64 Laps_  
_* 2011 car_

_Day 3_

This day, Tails, Silver, Antoine, Sonic, Elias, Charmy, Ray, Vector, Juice and Lightning took to the track.

The session consisted of the usual driving around and testing, but did feature a spectacular moment where Juice, thanks to his inexperience, went off the track and into a tyre wall, ending his session and meaning that Ash wouldn't get a run in the car until the final day at Jerez.

"My fault. Tyres were too cold. Sorry" Juice said over the team radio.

When the session ended, the times looked like this:

_1. Tails, Mercedes*, 1:17.613, 118 Laps_  
_2. Antoine, Lotus, 1:18.419, 117 Laps_  
_3. Silver, Red Bull, 1:19.297, 96 Laps_  
_4. Sonic, McLaren, 1:19.464, 80 Laps_  
_5. Charmy, Toro Rosso, 1:19.734, 79 Laps_  
_6. Ray, Sauber, 1:19.770, 48 Laps_  
_7. Elias, Ferrari, 1:20.412, 67 Laps_  
_8. Vector, Williams, 1:21.293, 125 Laps_  
_9. Lightning, Caterham, 1:21.426, 94 Laps_  
_10. Juice, Force India, no time, 2 Laps_  
_* 2011 car_

_Day 4_

As the final day of testing at Jerez came by, the teams were eager to gain as much running time as possible. As with the days before, it followed the same format, with Ash finally getting behind the wheel of the Force India.

After the cars spent the day screaming round the track, the drivers once again returned to the pits at the end of the day and told the engineers about how they felt the car was.

The times for the day looked like this:

_1. Elias, Ferrari, 1:18.877, 39 Laps_  
_2. Charmy, Toro Rosso, 1:19.597, 80 Laps_  
_3. Silver, Red Bull, 1:19.606, 50 Laps_  
_4. Sonic, McLaren, 1:19.640, 86 Laps_  
_5. Antoine, Lotus, 1:19.729, 95 Laps_  
_6. Espio, Sauber, 1:19.834, 76 Laps_  
_7. Ash, Force India, 1:19.977, 90 Laps_  
_8. Vector, Williams, 1:20.132, 125 Laps_  
_9. Lightning, Caterham, 1:22.198, 117 Laps_

Once everything was done, the teams began to pack up and prepare to head out to Barcelona, most of them satisfied with their testing. But by far, the most satisfied driver was Antoine. Before, he felt like a useless driver who's only benefit was his huge sponsorship wallet. This time, however, he began to feel like he was actually pretty good.

* * *

_Circuit De Catalunya_

_Day 1_

Things were a little different this time round. The most notable being the announcement that Lightning Lynx and the Caterham Team had parted company. It had been no secret that driver and team had had a fairly rocky relationship, but the news still took everyone by surprise. Caterham also announced that Bean the Dynamite would be taking his place within the team.

What's more, Marussia had finally turned up to the testing, albeit in their previous car, as they were still developing their new one. HRT decided to call it a day with testing, as they still needed to develop their own car. Also, Mercedes were finally able to launch their car for the upcoming season.

So, in the wake of all this, the drivers then hopped into their cars and went screeching around the track. However, it didn't take too long for something to go wrong.

Antoine had been able to spend most of his testing time doing some aero tests for the team, helping to find the right set-up with the wings. But then, on lap 7, he came over the radio with a concerned tone in his voice.

"Uh, ladies & gentleman. Zis car! She has un problem!" he told the team.

"Copy that, Antoine. The telemetry on the car's looking off. Box this lap".

As Antoine pulled into the garage, the team wasted no time in seeing what the problem was. What they found certainly worried them. Due to the higher lateral loads of downforce on this circuit than at Jerez, the chassis of the car was being put under huge amounts of stress, straining part of the rear suspension arm. This wasn't helped by the unique chassis build of the car.

"What does this mean?" Shadow asked, concerned as he had to re-acquaint himself with the circuit.

"Well, we've been able to read data analysis from back at base. From what we can tell, the only thing we can do is send this chassis back to base for repairs".

"What about the other chassis? Can't we ship that here?"

"We were considering that, but we also discovered that the same issue is present on that car. So, until then, we won't be able to take part until we can sort out the problems, which should be before the first race of the season".

Understandably, the two drivers weren't too happy with this. But, they had to accept that things like this happened sometimes. All they could do now was sit back and watch the other cars go by.

At the end of the day, the times looked like this:

_1. Silver, Red Bull, 1:23.265, 79 Laps  
2. Ash, Force India, 1:23.440, 97 Laps  
3. Sonic, McLaren, 1:23.590, 114 Laps  
4. Geoffrey, Toro Rosso, 1:23.618, 76 Laps  
5. Elias, Ferrari, 1:24.100, 75 Laps  
6. Flint, Mercedes, 1:24.150, 51 Laps  
7. Ray, Sauber, 1:24.219, 66 Laps  
8. Vector, Williams, 1:25.711, 97 Laps  
9. Bark, Caterham, 1:26.035, 31 Laps  
10. Antoine, Lotus, 1: 26.809s, 7 Laps  
11. Jet, Marussia*, 1:28.026, 121 Laps  
* 2011 car_

_Day 2_

The day itself turned out to be pretty uneventful, but that was sometimes the nature of testing. Despite a couple of technical issues, nothing noticeable happened. In fact, the only really new thing today was that Bean made a start with Caterham.

Times at the end of the day:

_1. Ash, Force India, 1:22.608, 112 Laps  
2. Ray, Sauber, 1:22.648, 85 Laps  
3. Silver, Red Bull, 1:22.891, 104 Laps  
4. Elias, Ferrari, 1:23.180, 87 Laps  
5. Geoffrey, Toro Rosso, 1:23.639, 50 Laps  
6. Sonic, McLaren, 1:23.806, 120 Laps  
7. Tails, Mercedes, 1:24.555, 82 Laps  
8. Vector, Williams, 1:25.738, 117 Laps  
9. Bean, Caterham, 1:26.605, 69 Laps  
10. Jet, Marussia*, 1:27.343, 108 Laps  
* 2011 car_

_Day 3_

This day mainly consisted of the teams testing out the cars in full race simulation, with a full tank of fuel. Again, despite a couple of technical issues, nothing of note happened. However, when the drivers returned to the pits, there was another small surprise waiting for them.

On the time sheet:

_1. Knuckles, Williams, 1:22.391, 106 Laps_  
_2. Flint, Mercedes, 1:23.384, 127 Laps_  
_3. Espio, Sauber, 1:23.582, 99 Laps_  
_4. Manic, McLaren, 1:23.918, 114 Laps_  
_5. Charmy, Toro Rosso, 1:24.433, 78 Laps_  
_6. Nack, Red Bull, 1:24.771, 97 Laps_  
_7. Khan, Ferrari, 1:24.771, 84 Laps_  
_8. Mighty, Force India, 1:25.646, 83 Laps_  
_9. Storm, Marussia*, 1:26.173, 108 Laps_  
_10. Bean, Caterham, 1:26.448, 70 Laps_  
_* 2011 car_

Needless to say, Knuckles was pretty happy with this.

_Day 4_

Time sheet:

_1. Espio, Sauber, 1:22.312, 145 Laps_  
_2. Knuckles, Williams, 1:22.561, 134 Laps_  
_3. Mighty, Force India, 1:23.119, 101 Laps_  
_4. Manic, McLaren, 1:23.200, 115 Laps_  
_5. Khan, Ferrari, 1:23.563, 103 Laps_  
_6. Nack, Red Bull, 1:23.774, 85 Laps_  
_7. Charmy, Toro Rosso, 1:23.792, 92 Laps_  
_8. Tails, Mercedes, 1:23.843, 139 Laps_  
_9. Bark, Caterham, 1:26.968, 70 Laps_

* * *

At the end of testing, there usually was some sort of hint as to which teams were faster than others. The various teams and pundits would often then try and work out a running order. However, timing like this was unreliable in tests, as nobody knew how much fuel each car was carrying. Asides from that, here was the main idea everyone got about the running order:

There wasn't one.

For once, no one had any idea who would win the championship. Of course, they had ideas of who could win it (Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferarri and, thankfully for Shadow, Lotus) but nothing solid, as some of the other teams had been hanging around and posting some surprisingly fast times.

As the teams packed up and headed out to Australia, there was a buzzing sense of excitement amongst the teams. For once, they had no idea who was on top. This meant that when the time came, things would be so much more unpredictable and add to the overall thrill of the season.

They were also terrified that someone would unlock the secret to success and win everything.

Unless, of course, it was their own team.


	2. Round 1 - Australia

**Chapter 2: Round 1 - Australia**

The twelve team finally arrived at the Albert Park circuit for the first round with absolutely no idea what to expect for the race weekend. What they could expect however, was plenty of reliability problems for the teams and controversy surrounding certain unique technical parts on cars.

This proved to be one of the main talking points of weekend, as it was discovered that the Mercedes car carried what was apparently called a "radical wing concept". Basically, it proved to be an extension of the DRS device. When the driver activated the DRS, it would stall the rear wing, reducing the downforce and increasing the top speed of the car in the designated zones. However, the wing concept took this a step further. When the DRS was opened, it uncovered two small inlets, one on either side of the rear wing. These would then lead air down small tubes, round the cockpit and out the front wing, stalling that one as well and increasing the top speed even further.

On the Thursday morning, a technical delegate from the FIA did a full inspection of the system and eventually deemed it to be legal, much to the team's relief.

What's more, Marussia and HRT were finally able to launch their cars to the public after they'd finally passed their crash tests. In comparison to their rivals at Caterham, they had arrived in Australia on the back foot. That being said, however, they were determined not to let their lack of time with their newest cars pull them down.

_Friday  
__Free Practice 1_

As Friday morning came around, there was a damp feeling in the air as the drivers all clambered into their cars, ready for the first practice session.

"Okay Sonic, so just do one installation lap before coming back in, so we can assess where we lie for this session". Sonic's race engineer down at McLaren told him.

"Okay, copy". He replied as the team finished fitting the tyres onto his car.

Then, once all the drivers were in their cars, the whole pitlane came alive with the combined revving of 24 V8 engines. One by one, the cars exited their pit boxes and headed out for their installation laps.

Out on track, it was too wet for slick tyres, but it was also too dry for intermediates. Them teams ten decided to wait for the track to dry up until it was just about dry enough for slicks.

As Shadow went round the track, he was on the radio to his team.

"Guys, I think something's wrong with the power steering" He said to them. "It doesn't quite feel right".

Shadow wasn't the only one having problems with his car. Further away, Power was complaining about the chassis on his HRT in general.

As the drivers fnished wrapping up their installation lap, they then dived into the pitlane and began waiting in their garages for the track to dry.

Eventually, a dry line began to appear, so the teams fitted slick tyres and sent their cars out again.

That is, however, before Nathan's HRT shut itself off on the approach to Turn 13 as the result of an oil overheating issue. This then brought out the yellow flags and halted the session. Thankfully, the car was quickly removed and the yellow flags disappeared.

Shadow was still having power steering issues with his car, but still managed to get out on track for eight laps.

Then, Khan went and spun at Turn 9 and went onto the gravel trap, ending his session.

At the end of the 90 minute session, the time sheet looked like this:

_1. Manic **McLaren-Mercedes** 1m 27.560s_  
_2. Sonic **McLaren-Mercedes** 1m 27.805s_  
_3. Flint **Mercedes-Mercedes** 1m 28.235s_  
_4. Elias **Ferrari-Ferrari** 1m 28.360s_  
_5. Nack **Red Bull-Renault** 1m 28.467s_  
_6. Tails **Mercedes-Mercedes** 1m 28.683s_  
_7. Geoffrey **Toro Rosso-Ferrari** 1m 28.908s_  
_8. Knuckles **Williams-Renault** 1m 29.415s_  
_9. Shadow **Lotus-Renault** 1m 29.565s_  
_10. Espio **Sauber-Ferrari** 1m 29.722s_  
_11. Silver **Red Bull-Renault** 1m 29.790s_  
_12. Ash **Force India-Mercedes** 1m 29.865s_  
_13. Mighty **Force India-Mercedes** 1m 29.881s_  
_14. Vector **Williams-Renault** 1m 29.953s_  
_15. Ray **Sauber-Ferrari** 1m 30.124s_  
_16. Antoine **Lotus-Renault** 1m 30.515s_  
_17. Bark **Caterham-Renault** 1m 30.586s_  
_18. Khan **Ferrari-Ferrari** 1m 30.743s_  
_19. Charmy **Toro Rosso-Ferrari** 1m 31.178s_  
_20. Bean **Caterham-Renault** 1m 31.983s_  
_21. Storm **Marussia-Cosworth** 1m 34.730s_  
_22. Jet **Marussia-Cosworth** 1m 40.256s_  
_23. Nathan **HRT-Cosworth** no time_  
_24. Power **HRT-Cosworth** no time_

_Free Practice 2_

Not too long before the start of the session, there was a heavy rainfall on the circuit, meaning that it was declared wet when the session started. The teams opted to do what they'd done last time: do a quick installation lap, then wait for the track to dry up.

However, as the cars left their garages, Power was still stuck in his, his car hampered by problems with the hydraulics.

40 minutes after the drivers finished their installation laps, a dry line began to appear again. The Sauber of Ray was the first car out of the pitlane at this point, followed by the others. After that, the only other notable moments were spins from some of the other drivers, namely Bark, Nack and Knuckles. Not just that, but once the chequered flag had fallen, Nathan stopped his HRT on track again, owing to more issues with it.

At the end of the session, the time sheet looked like this:

_1. Flint **Mercedes-Mercedes** 1m 29.183s_  
_2. Ash **Force India-Mercedes** 1m 29.292s_  
_3. Ray **Sauber-Ferrari** 1m 30.199s_  
_4. Elias **Ferrari** 1m 30.341s_  
_5. Espio **Sauber-Ferrari** 1m 30.709s_  
_6. Mighty **Force India-Mercedes** 1m 31.466s_  
_7. Khan **Ferrari** 1m 31.505s_  
_8. Bark **Caterham-Renault** 1m 31.932s_  
_9. Tails **Mercedes** 1m 32.184s_  
_10. Silver **Red Bull-Renault** 1m 32.194s_  
_11. Nack **Red Bull-Renault** 1m 32.296s_  
_12. Storm **Marussia-Cosworth** 1m 32.632s_  
_13. Bean **Caterham-Renault** 1m 32.767s_  
_14. Antoine **Lotus-Renault** 1m 32.822s_  
_15. Manic **McLaren-Mercedes** 1m 33.039s_  
_16. Sonic **McLaren-Mercedes** 1m 33.252s_  
_17. Knuckles **Williams-Renault** 1m 34.108s_  
_18. Shadow **Lotus-Renault** 1m 34.275s_  
_19. Vector **Williams-Renault** 1m 34.312s_  
_20. Charmy **Toro Rosso-Ferrari** 1m 34.485s_  
_21. Geoffrey **Toro Rosso-Ferrari** 1m 34.604s_  
_22. Jet **Marussia-Cosworth** 1m 34.770s_  
_23. Nathan **HRT-Cosworth** 1m 42.627s_  
_24. Power **HRT-Cosworth** no time_

_Saturday  
__Free Practice 3_

Thankfully for the teams, the third session was warm and dry, which allowed them to gain significantly more running time.

However, despite the dry conditions, there were still cars spinning off. One incident that really caught the eye was Silver spinning his Red Bull onto the gravel at Turn 5. This was soon followed by Flint spinning his Mercedes onto the gravel at Turn 9.

Overall, thins weren't looking very good down at the Red Bull garage.

At the end of the session, the time sheet looked like this:

_1. Sonic **McLaren-Mercedes** 1m 25.681s  
2. Antoine **Lotus-Renault **1m 25.758s  
3. Nack **Red Bull-Renault **1m 25.900s  
4. Manic **McLaren-Mercedes **1m 25.906s  
5. Tails **Mercedes **1m 25.929s  
6. Flint **Mercedes **1m 26.078s  
7. Silver **Red Bull-Renault **1m 26.211s**  
**__8. Knuckles **Williams-Renault **1m 26.470s  
__9. Ray **Sauber-Ferrari **1m 26.632s  
10. Geoffrey **Toro Rosso-Ferrari **1m 26.723s  
11. Charmy **Toro Rosso-Ferrari **1m 26.733s  
12. Shadow **Lotus-Renault **1m 26.737s**  
**13. Espio **Sauber-Ferrari **1m 26.755s**  
**__14. Ash **Force India-Mercedes **1m 27.029s  
__15. Vector **Williams-Renault **1m 27.119s  
__16. Elias **Ferrari **1m 27.323s  
__17. Mighty **Force India-Mercedes **1m 27.428s  
__18. Khan **Ferrari **1m 28.023s  
__19. Bark **Caterham-Renault **1m 28.341s  
__20. Bean **Caterham-Renault **1m 28.702s  
__21. Storm **Marussia-Cosworth **1m 30.728s  
__22. Jet **Marussia-Cosworth **1m 31.225s  
__23. Power **HRT-Cosworth **1m 33.114s  
__24. Nathan **HRT-Cosworth **1m 33.261s_

Things were not looking good for Ferrari and were looking even worse for HRT.

_Qualifying_

With the early signs from practice in mind, it looked like it was going to be tight battle at the top for McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes. It also looked like both HRT cars would fail to qualify for the race for a second consecutive year.

However, as the drivers geared up, ready for qualifying, they needed to take into account what had happened at Turn 3. At the end of FP3, a V8 Supercars support race had taken place. At Turn 3, a six car pile-up had taken place, covering the corner with sand and flame retardant foam. Whilst most of it had been cleaned away, there was still a bit of gravel on the track, so the drivers needed to watch out for it.

Never the less, the drivers were soon out on track for the first qualifying session.

One by one, the drivers exited the pitlane, where they proceeded to blast around the circuit, completing flying lap after flying lap. However, this period was one that was marked with heavy traffic and drivers accidentally getting held up by other drivers.

However, towards the end of the session, the expected running order was shaken up as Espio managed to clock the fastest time of the session in his Sauber. He was soon followed by Charmy and Ray, who clocked in at second and third, respectively.

In the drop zone, the typical six cars were there: the two Caterhams, two Marussias and the two HRTs. However, whilst the Caterhams were still quite slow in comparison to the others, the HRTs were miles off the pace. In fact, there was a good chance they'd fail to successfully qualify for the race. As for the rest of the drop zone, it was just a question of who would be joining the usual suspects.

For a short while it looked like Khan would be the final one to drop out. However, in the last few minutes of Q1, he managed to set a time of 1:27.633, just about managing to haul himself out of the bottom seven.

As Shadow got news from Khan's lap from his team, he realised with horror that he was at risk of getting knocked out of Q1.

"I can make it" He thought to himself. "If Antoine can make it, so can I".

With that, he screeched across the line to begin his final flying lap, reaching 305 km/h in seventh gear at the end of the straight,allowing him to take Turns 1 & 2 perfectly before powering another short straight and braking heavily for Turn 3, dropping the car into second gear, allowing him to successfully navigate Turns 4 & 5.

As he navigated Turns 6 & 7, his sector time and his split to Khan came up on the display on his steering wheel.

He was easily going quicker than Khan.

He swung round Turn 8 and 255 Km/h before breaking hard into Turns 9 & 10.

On the run down to Turn 11, his sector time and split with Khan's time came up again.

He was still on target.

But then, as he navigated Turn 11, he carried a little too much speed into Turn 12, causing him to run wide and glance the sandtrap.

"That's not going to be good for my time" He said to himself, mentally killing himself for that mistake.

With that, he decided just to go all out to get out of Q1, reaching Turn 13 at 296 Km/h before breaking heavily and turning in, head being pushed around due to the G forces.

"Come on, come on" He said to his car as he rounded Turn 14.

Finally, he rounded Turn 15, the slowest corner on the track, passing the pit entrance before swinging round Turn 16 and onto the start/finish straight.

"COME ON! COME ON!" Shadow screamed to his car as he put his hammer down for the last few metres sprint.

He blitzed across the line, the chequered flag flying.

He then quickly looked down at the HUD on the wheel.

His head dropped in defeat.

1:27.758

Not fast enough.

"Damn it." He muttered to himself. "P18. Sorry guys. My fault. I screwed up at Turn 12." He said to his team.

"Don't worry Shadow" He race engineer said to him. "These things happen. Let's just hope we can make up places in the race tomorrow".

Shadow was feeling like crap for not being able to string his lap together.

Antoine, on the other hand, was bright and cheerful for going P4.

"Great job Antoine, let's keep it up for the next session" His race engineer said to him as he made his way back into the pit.

"Oui. Merci, mes amis" he replied happily.

As the drivers returned to their garages, these seven wouldn't be participating in Q2:

_18. Shadow  
19. Bark_  
_20. Bean_  
_21. Storm_  
_22. Jet_  
_23. Power_  
_24. Nathan_

However, whilst these seven were out of qualifying, they at least the first five had the satisfaction of knowing they'd successfully qualified for the race. Power and Nathan, on the other hand, had not been able to set a competitive time both here and the day before, with their qualifying times over 1 whole second slower than the cut-off time, meaning that there would be a strong chance they wouldn't be allowed to race tomorrow.

However, there wasn't much time to think about this as the remaining seventeen drivers hopped back into their cars as Q2 began.

Then, once they'd done their installation laps, sixteen of the drivers went out again to set timed laps. The only one who didn't was Ray, who was complaining about issues with the gearbox on his Sauber.

However, five minutes in, there was another surprise. As some of the others, waited in the pits, they spotted red flags coming out. Everyone then left their boxes to see what had happened. They soon found it. There, in the gravel at Turn 1, was the Ferrari of Elias. He had accidentally crossed the outer edge of the circuit in the braking zone, causing him to spin. Also, since he couldn't return the car back to the circuit, that was the end of his session.

As he clambered out of his beached Ferrari, Elias was absolutely furious.

He angrily stuck the steering wheel back into the car and marched out of the gravel trap with an expression that said "Don't mess me around at the moment".

The time needed to be stopped for four minutes as the marshals cleared away the car, before the session could continue again.

As the red flags disappeared, Elias was sitting in P3. However, as the other cars re-emerged from the pit-lane and set even more fast laps, he soon began to fall into the drop zone. As for the sole remaining Ferrari of Monkey Khan, he struggled to do any better and ultimately ended up falling into the drop zone as well, with Tails and Flint clocking in the first and second fastest times of the session, respectively.

At the end of the session, these drivers joined the other seven on the sidelines:

_11. Charmy  
12. Elias  
13. Espio  
14. Vector  
15. Mighty  
16. Khan  
17. Ray_

This left the last ten drivers to battle it out for pole position in the final part of qualifying.

As the light at the end of the pit-lane went green, Tails was out immediately, followed by Flint, both of whom were on the soft compound tyres. They both knew they had a shot at nabbing pole position, so wanted to take their chances. However, on his flying lap, Tails made an error going into one of the corners. Whilst he was able to set a quick lap time, it was easily beaten by Flint.

However, Flint's thoughts of provisional pole were soon wiped as Sonic came flying round the final corner, on his flying lap. as he crossed the line, his final time appeared.

_1:24.922_

Not too far behind was Manic in the other McLaren.

He then crossed the line

_1:25.074_

One by one, most of the other drivers all came out of the pits and tried to beat Sonic's time, but to no avail.

Not just that, but Antoine was on fire out there.

The only drivers that weren't really bothering at this moment were Ash and Geoffrey, both wanting to save their tyres for the race.

However, in the closing stages of the session, the cameras turned to the pit-lane as a Red Bull, with a black and white helmet poking out the top, came ominously rolling out and speeding off towards the first corner.

Silver had done this in the past, especially last season. when the other drivers were driving their nuts off in qualifying, Silver would come out in the last few minutes, leaving himself just enough time to complete his out lap. He would then blitz the track in his fast lap and easily claim provisional pole.

For most of his flying lap, it looked like this might happen again.

However, as he came round the final corner and flew across the line, something had clearly changed at Red Bull.

_1:25.668_

Only good enough for P6.

The McLaren team were ecstatic not just by the fact they had a car on provisional pole, but a front row lockout.

"Great job, Sonic. That's P1. Congratulations." His race engineer said to him.

"Yeah! Great job, guys!" Sonic replied, happily.

The remaining cars on track soon pulled up in the pitlane for post-qualifying scrutineering.

As the two McLaren drivers got out of their cars, they celebrated with their crew before heading off to the weighing bridge.

But if anyone else had had a bigger smile on their face, it was Antoine. He would line up right behind the two McLarens for the race, tomorrow.

Once the drivers had been weighed up, most of them headed off to the waiting media crews.

Sonic, Manic and Antoine, went upstairs to the post-qualifying press conference.

They had no idea what the outcome of the race would be, but they could tell one thing.

It would be a real humdinger.

* * *

_Sunday  
Race_

"Well, it may be late in the day or early in the morning wherever you are, but here in Australia, it's a bright and sunny afternoon. Welcome to the first round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship season. Yesterday, the McLaren team scored a front row lockout, with Sonic on pole. I don't know what's going to happen, by I've got a distinct feeling that this race is going to be a good one".

"Indeed it might be. You have the McLarens on the front row, the Red Bulls taking up the third row, the Ferraris somewhere in the midfield and the returning Shadow the Hedgehog near the back after that mistake in qualifying. That being said, I'm not going to rule any of the big names out of winning here today. We might be in for one of those races".

Down on the circuit, the teams were getting their cars fuelled up and ready for the race ahead. All except the HRT team, who had been confirmed as "failed to qualify" once qualifying had ended, preventing them from taking part.

One other difference in how the grid was shaped for the start of the race was Ray. Due to the gearbox acting up on his car, his team needed to replace it, thus meaning that they incurred a five place grid penalty, moving Ray down from seventeenth to twenty-second, the last spot on the grid for the race.

As the Lotus teams prepared their cars, Shadow was busy psyching up for the race ahead. Him not being able to reach Q3 had one positive: he was able to decide which tyre he started on for the race, a luxury his teammate didn't have.

The drivers then suited up and clambered into their cars.

They soon got the calls from their race engineers.

"Start 'em up, cars to track".

"Get the cars of the jacks and start the engines".

"Fire 'em up"

"Gentlemen, start your engines!"

"Let's do this thing!"

The cars then roared into life before lining up, one by one, at the pit exit. Once the light went green, they headed round on their way to their grid spots, whilst going through system checks with their engineers.

As they reached their spots on the grid, their engineers came out to join them, along with various members of the media, VIPs and voluptuous grid girls.

The grandstands were packed with spectators, waiting for the race to get going.

Whilst most of the drivers were out of their cars with their race engineers, Shadow was sat in the cockpit of his Lotus, helmet and gloves off, trying to visualise the perfect lap around the circuit.

"Lap visualised" he said to himself "Now all I need to do is duplicate that 58 times".

His main goal for this race was to get into the top ten and score points, which would be tough, considering where he was going to start.

After a long wait and the playing of the national anthem, a siren sounded, telling everyone else to clear the track.

Once they did, they received a signal from the race director to start the warm-up lap.

As the cars slowly went round in order of their starting position, weaving to get more heat into their tyres, shadow was beginning to feel slightly nervous. This was the first time in years that he would start a grand prix. He had no idea how things would play out, especially as this was a team whom he'd never driven with before. He felt like a rookie all over again.

He just swallowed his nerves and just went with it.

Eventually, the grid made it back round to the grid, where they lined up in their gird spots, waiting for the signal to start racing.

_One light_

Shadow looked ahead at the Force India of Mighty. On the opposite side of the track stood the Ferrari of Khan. The cars started revving their engines.

_Two lights_

Shadow looked into his mirrors at the two Caterhams.

_Three lights_

Shadow gripped the steering wheel tightly, finger on the clutch.

_Four lights_

Shadow revved his engines.

_Five lights_

He took a deep breath, calming his nerves as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. It was at this point that all time seemed to temporarily slow down as the racing world watched and waited for the race to get underway.

Then, finally...

_Lights out._

The race was on.

As the lights disappeared, it was as if someone opened a barrel of angry bees and all twenty two drivers dropped their clutches and screeched off the line, into the first corner. At the front, manic had been able to make a surprisingly good start, allowing him to pull up alongside Sonic and take the lead as they went through the first corner.

Antoine had had his work in qualifying slightly shattered as he was jumped by Flint, Silver and Tails, dropping him down to sixth.

Elias had made a great start, jumping up a few places into seventh.

Nack had made a terrible start, eventually getting himself caught up in a tussle with Ash and Charmy.

Near the back, Shadow and Ray had been successfully able to jump the other cars around them and gain one and four places respectively.

However, as the cars made it round the first corner, there was contact as expected. As Vector turned in to the corner, he was hit by the Toro Rosso of Geoffrey, sending him into a spin. yet despite the damage received, they were still able to continue, albeit in last place.

Then, at Turn 5, Ash and Charmy made even more contact. In fact, it was more than enough to damage Ash's car and end his race.

"Well, that's just great" Ash said to himself sarcastically as he hauled himself from his stricken Force India.

He wasn't the only driver to have his race ruined on the first lap in this case. At Turn 13, it all went pear shaped for Antoine. As he tussled for position with Knuckles, they made contact. The impact ended up snapping the steering arm on his Lotus, sending into the sand trap and out of the race.

"Non! Non! Non!" Antoine wailed.

At the end of the first lap, Manic was still in the lead, ahead of Sonic. Flint was managing to hold on to third place, but Tails had lost a position to Silver.

At the back, Vector and Geoffrey crawled into the pits for repairs.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Ray were getting to work, clawing up the standings.

_Lap 10_

At this stage, the pit stop window was open. Manic still managed to maintain the lead ahead of Sonic, Flint and Silver. Elias was holding onto fifth, but under threat from a fast moving Knuckles. Further towards the back, Shadow and Ray been scything through the others, with Shadow making short work of Khan's Ferrari and Espio's Sauber.

However, this was all changed as Flint was spotted going off onto the grass at Turn 1 before limping towards Turn 3.

"Guys, I have a problem" He said to his team over the radio. "The gearbox is packing up. I think we're going to have to retire".

"Understood. Box, box, box".

At the end of the lap, the broken Mercedes of Flint slowly crawled into the pitlane before being wheeled back into the garage, out of the race.

_Lap 14_

Suddenly, the pit stop frenzy was triggered as Khan entered the pits. Then, on the following two laps, multiple other cars pitted for new tyres, including Manic. He did have to relinquish the lead to Sonic, but he easily regained it on the following lap. That being said, one of the few that didn't pit at this time was Ray on the harder compound tyres. He was attempting to pull off a one stop race, which he'd done the year before. This time, as the others went into the pits, he found himself up in second place.

This wasn't for long, however, as Sonic soon found a way past him, fearing that he would be under attack from Silver if he didn't move.

Then, later on, the Lotus Team received a message from a confused Shadow.

"Why do I keep getting those damn blue flags?"

"Blue flags are for cars behind, Shadow. They're not for you". His engineer replied.

It wasn't what he said that made it funny, but the way he said it.

Besides, the main reason Shadow was getting the blue flag warning was because of a malfunction with the computer program, as instead of flags, they used flashing lights.

_Lap 37_

Lap after lap of non-stop, fast paced racing was temporarily brought to a hault as Bean stopped his Caterham on the Start/Finish straight due to a steering problem.

Despite being on the opposite side of the track to the racing line, the car was still deemed to be in a dangerous position, meaning that the safety car had to be deployed.

As the safety car emerged from the pitlane and appearing ahead of Manic, slowing the entire field down.

"Ah, safety car. How I've missed thee so" Shadow said to himself sarcastically.

The arrival of the safety car led to another round of pit stops, which, significantly, allowed Silver to take second place from Sonic.

On Lap 41, as the truck removed the Caterham and the lapped cars reached the back of the pack, the safety car dived back into the pitlane and the race was underway once more, with Manic able to open up a three second gap on the restart. With Sonic unable to overtake Silver, he was left to contend with Nack, who was slowly approaching him. Further back, Elias was still under threat from Knuckles. Finally, though, Ray and Shadow were in the top ten.

However, the race didn't last much longer for Bark, as he was forced to retire from the race with a faulty suspension.

_Lap 46_

Slowly, as the race began to reach its closing stages, it seemed like the number of drivers on track was slowly whittling away. Near the back of the field, Khan was tussling for position with Vector's Williams. However, as they went round Turn 3, they collided, tangling themselves together. when they did eventually manage to untangle from each other, they'd both developed punctures and had to pit. whilst Ferrari had to retire Khan due to the collision damage being so great, Vector was able to continue for another few laps before retiring on Lap 52.

Then, on Lap 53, Jet's Marussia slowed drastically until it stopped off circuit due to an oil pressure issue.

_Lap 58-Final Lap_

Manic had been able to successfully hold the lead for most of the race, but knew not to give up until the chequered flag appeared, as Silver was slowly starting to gain on him, his advantage down to just under three seconds.

Sonic was still trying to catch up to Silver, all whilst fending off Nack.

Further back, Knuckles was still trying to find a way past Elias and was starting to get impatient.

But then, it all went wrong for the echidna.

On the apex of Turn 7, he applied a little bit too much throttle too soon. As a result, this sent his Williams into a spin before making contact with the wall. Despite escaping serious injury, the car was completely wrecked.

"PISS!" Yelled Knuckles as he removed himself from his car.

In the sole remaining Ferrari, Elias sighed with relief.

"Thank god that's over with" He said to himself.

Slightly further back, there way a three way duel for seventh place between Ray, Tails and Shadow, who was running slightly faster than both of them. However, on the approach to Turns 11 & 12, Tails and Ray made contact, giving the former a puncture.

Shadow then saw his chance and took it, swinging round the both of them to snatch seventh place.

Then, finally, at the front of the field, Manic rounded the final corner and crossed the line, chequered flag waving for him.

As he happily punched the air, Silver, Sonic and Nack crossed the line behind him.

"Fantastic job out there, Manic. You are the man. Great stuff" his race engineer said to him, happily.

"Yee-ha! Great job, guys. What a great way to start the year! Thanks!" Manic replied, ecstatic.

As the four brought their cars down to half race speed for the cooling down lap, Elias arrived home in fifth place.

Soon after, Espio arrived home in a lonely sixth, soon followed by the Lotus of Shadow.

Then, a four way battle between Ray, Mighty, Geoffrey, Mighty and Charmy came hurtling round the corner and across the line in that order, only 4 tenths of a second separating these four drivers.

Then, finally, the Mercedes of Tails limped over the line with a puncture, followed by the sole, lapped Marussia of Storm.

Despite not being able to finish, Knuckles, Jet and Vector were still classified, due to completing at least 90% of the total race distance.

The final results were like this:

_1. Manic **McLaren-Mercedes (25 points)  
**2. Silver **Red Bull-Renault **+2.139s **(18 points)  
**3. Sonic **McLaren-Mercedes **+4.075s **(15 Points)  
**4. Nack** Red Bull-Renault **+4.547s** (12 points)  
**5. Elias **Ferarri **+21.565s **(10 Points)**  
6. Espio **Sauber-Ferrari **+36.766s **(8 Points)**  
7. Shadow **Lotus-Renault **+38.014s **(6 Points)**  
8. Ray** Sauber-Ferrari **+39.458s **(4 Points)**  
9. Geoffrey **Toro Rosso-Ferrari **+39.556s **(2 Points)**  
10. Mighty** Force India-Mercedes **+39.737s **(1 point)**  
11. Charmy **Toro Rosso-Ferrari **+39.848s  
12. Tails **Mercedes **+57.642s  
13. Knuckles **Williams Renault **Accident  
14. Storm **Marussia-Cosworth **+1 Lap  
15. Jet **Marussia-Cosworth **Oil Pressure  
16. Vector **Williams-Renault **Collision Damage  
Ret. Khan **Ferrari **Collision Damage  
Ret. Bark **Caterham-Renault **Suspension  
Ret. Bean **Caterham-Renault **Steering  
Ret. Flint **Mercedes **Gearbox  
Ret. Antoine **Lotus-Renault **Collision  
Ret. Ash **Force India-Mercedes **Collision_

As Manic, Silver and Sonic pulled into the podium spot in the pitlane, they were greeted by a massive cheer from the crowd.

Manic got out of his car, ran over to his team and gave them all hugs and handshakes, thanking them for a great race.

Whilst Sonic wasn't happy about the fact that he'd lost out on a win, he was still happy for his teammate for taking the win instead.

As the other drivers weighed themselves up on the weighing bridge, the three podium finishers headed upstairs, where they grabbed a quick drink and weighed themselves on the scales there, congratulating each other on a great race before heading out onto the podium itself. As they did so, they were greeted by cheering from the crowds below.

One by one, the three drivers received their trophies, with a representative from the McLaren Team receiving the constructors trophy. Then, they opened the champagne and the celebrations began.

For Manic, things couldn't have started better.

* * *

Not too long after the podium celebrations had ended, Shadow arrived back in the Lotus garage, satisfied with his performance in the race.

As he entered the garage, the mechanics greeted his arrival with great applause, congratulating him on the race.

He replied by bowing courteously and shaking hands with the others.

"That was a great race out there, Shadow" His race engineer said to him. "If only you'd started higher up the grid, then you would've been fighting for a win".

"Yeah, I know" Shadow replied. "But hey, that's racing sometimes. Besides, there are 19 more races this season. Perhaps we'll do better then".

As the mechanics headed off to the trucks with boxes upon boxes of equipment, Shadow noticed something.

Sitting on the pit wall was Antoine.

Shadow could easily tell that he was depressed about what happened in the race between him and Knuckles.

He made his way over to him, hoisting himself up and sitting next to his teammate.

Antoine did indeed look unhappy.

"Why?" he asked. "Finally, I have been able to show vot I can do, but here it vos taken away from moi. Ees eet my destiny to be unlucky?"

"Look, Antoine" Shadow said to him. "What happened today wasn't your fault. It was just one of those things that happen. All drivers have off days, even myself. There's no stopping things like this from happening, but it's always best to remember that it's not the end of the world. the best thing to do is to forget about it and just move on to the next race. Besides, you're certainly a much better racer now, so that's something good to take away from this weekend".

"You think zo?" He asked, looking towards him.

"Definitely. Besides, you keep driving like you did in qualifying, then a whole bag of points will be on offer for you, maybe even a few podiums or, dare I say it, a race win".

"Wow. Merci, mon ami" Antoine said to him, shaking his hand in thanks.

"No problem. And hey, the next race is just next week. Perhaps your luck will turn there".

"Oui. Maybe".

* * *

_**Standings after this round:**_

_**Drivers Championship**_

_1. Manic (25 Points)  
2. Silver (18 Points)  
3. Sonic (15 Points)  
4. Nack (12 Points)  
5. Elias (10 Points)  
6. Espio (8 Points)  
7. Shadow (6 Points)  
8. Ray (4 Points)  
9. Geoffrey (2 Points)  
10. Mighty (1 Point)  
11. Charmy  
12. Tails  
13. Knuckles  
14. Storm  
15. Jet  
16. Vector  
- Khan  
- Bark  
- Bean  
- Flint  
- Antoine  
- Ash  
- Power  
- Nathan_

**_Constructors Championship_**

_1. McLaren-Mercedes (40 points)  
2. Red Bull-Renault (30 Points)  
3. Sauber-Ferrari (12 Points)  
4. Ferrari (10 points)  
5. Lotus-Renault (6 Points)  
6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari (2 Points)  
7. Force India-Mercedes (1 Point)  
8. Mercedes  
9. Williams-Renault  
10. Marussia-Cosworth  
- Caterham-Renault  
- HRT-Cosworth_

**_Next time..._**

**_Round 2 - Malaysia_**


End file.
